Through a myriad of powerful and life-changing experiences, I have learned that judging by first impressions or outward appearances is quite possibly one of THE most harmful tendencies of our culture today. It doesn’t make sense to me why, if a girl is beautiful, with features exquisite enough to be a vogue model, she is most likely automatically stereotyped as lacking intelligence. It doesn’t make sense to me why, if someone sees a young African-American male on campus with a highly defined, muscular build, they are generalized as an athlete and with that single assumption, the stereotypes start to flow.
What bothers me is that there is so much more to people than the way they look. People aren’t usually willing to probe deeper to find out the inner workings of a person…we prefer to remain at the surface-level.
When guys are startled by an intelligent female and students are surprised to sit by an articulate athlete or a non-athletic young Black man, we should know we’ve got problems. The media does, in fact, play upon many of these stereotypes since they are considered to be cultural norms. These norms characteristically go unquestioned because they have been made standard. Movies depict female action heroes such as Lara Croft as sex objects (Cristina Lucia Stasia), hyper-feminize television actresses as the submissive housewife, make them power-hungry female CEOs, or render young women as dense and obtuse. Just watch Desperate Housewives, Gossip Girls, White Chicks or Mean Girls. We produce films that reinforce the stereotypes of the gangster-like African-American male, tainted by crime and violence, or the African-American man who reaches the height of success solely due to his athletic prowess. We describe Black females as having big butts and big lips and then proceed to place them in one of four categories: mammies, matriarchs, Jezebels, and Welfare Mamas. Aside from the mammy stereotype, none of these representations correspond with the role of a “normal” woman, mother, and home-maker (typically portrayed by the white female). Instead, they are assumed to be living off of the government and largely neglectful of their families. Anyone who has ever watched Big Momma’s House or Take the Lead can attest to these unfortunate portrayals.
Stereotypes are very, very dangerous, not only to the overall health of our culture, but also to the ability to define oneself instead of having it assumed for you. These unfortunate images provide powerful ideologies about people’s existence, ones that do not correctly identify each and every unique individual. Some prefer for stereotypes to remain in place because it gives them power, attention and sometimes, even unearned privilege. But think about how many people are getting hurt by false assumptions and generalizations based on the length and foreign pronunciation of their last name or the pigment of their skin. Consider this real-life experience: In class one day, a highly intellectual, reflective question was posed. It was one of those questions that caused blank stares on the faces around the room. One of the African-American football players, sitting at the back of the room, put up his hand to be called upon. The students around me were baffled. Could he really have an answer? They doubted his intellect and academic ability because of the many stereotypes that had been assigned to him because he was both black and an athlete. You have absolutely no idea how ecstatic I was when he gave one of the most comprehensive and insightful answers that had been provided throughout that entire semester. He proved them wrong and all of their prejudices invalid. The frustration that continues with the naïve people of the world today, however, stems even more from this moment.
Marginalizing people in this way is a scary inclination as it supposedly makes social constructions neater and more organized. But in reality, this approach is only making a bigger mess of things. And as some try to clean up the mess, most just walk by and claim that they will work on it later. As time passes and the chaos continues, think about how many opportunities to hire the most qualified candidate or strike up a new friendship will be missed.
For further information, see:
godaddy.com Super Bowl Commercials: http://videos.godaddy.com/super-bowl-commercials.aspx
What is a stereotype? http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/stereotypes.htm
Dumbed-Down Girls...http://www.wimnonline.org/WIMNsVoicesBlog/?p=610
Above images from: http://cndls.georgetown.edu/applications/posterTool/index.cfm?fuseaction=poster.display&posterID=3103
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